


Carving the Future

by ArielSakura



Series: Christmas Fluff [29]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Getting Together, Inappropriate Sexual Innuendo's Hidden in Fluff, M/M, Matchmaking Twins, Meddling Friends, No Horcruxes, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Wolfstar Parents, gratuitous fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:42:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27777829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArielSakura/pseuds/ArielSakura
Summary: Lee has been working at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes for just over a year now. These Christmas holidays see the introduction of a new helper to the store and a realisation that might just change his life.
Relationships: Lee Jordan/Harry Potter
Series: Christmas Fluff [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1225067
Comments: 16
Kudos: 241
Collections: The Marauders Advent 2020





	Carving the Future

**Author's Note:**

> Much love to my alpha and beta who must remain anonymous for now. This was written for the Marauder Advent of 2020. My prompts were Lee Jordan and Homemade Gift. <3

It was the day after Hogwarts had broken up for the Christmas holidays and Lee was setting up the space that Fred and George allowed him to have in their shop to sell his wood carvings. They weren’t anything special, at least not in Lee’s opinion, but it was a passionate hobby of his and Fred and George thought them good enough to earn him some money. It was an idle dream that maybe some people liked them enough to buy a piece or two. Maybe even good enough that one day, he could have his own business. 

“Wow. These are amazing!” came a voice from behind him. 

Lee turned to see Harry Potter standing beside him, dressed in a Weasley jumper and jeans, gazing at his display. 

“What do they do? Can I touch them? Or do they need an activation phrase?” 

Lee chuckled. "You can touch them, they're probably the only thing in here that aren’t all that magical."

He watched as Harry reached out and picked up one of the thinner pieces. It was designed to be a bookmark and was covered in a Nordic design of the Yggdrasil World Tree, with Fenrir the wolf curled at its base. It was spelled with a minor sticking rune to ensure it would never fall out of its place.

"I dunno," Harry said, his voice quiet as his fingertips trailed over the ridged edgings, "they still seem pretty magical to me."

Lee was grateful that his skin covered the sudden, unexpected burning in his cheeks. 

"Uh, thanks."

Harry's eyes flew up to meet his. "You made these?"

Lee nodded, "Yeah, bit of a hobby, you know?"

"I never knew... What else have you made?"

"A few statues, some bigger carvings…" he trailed off with a shrug. 

"Do you spell them all?" Harry asked. 

"Not always. It depends."

"On what?" Harry asked as he placed the bookmark back and picked up what Lee called a quill helper but really thought should probably have a better name. 

"On if it wants to be charmed. I get this sense sometimes, of what it wants to be and if it will accept a charm or not. That probably sounds stupid but―"

"No. No, it doesn't sound stupid at all," Harry interrupted. "I think I know what you mean. There's… so much ambient intent in things. In objects. I actually thought..."

He ducked his head and abruptly changed the subject.

"So what's this thing then?" 

"It's a device to slip a quill into, for the elderly or less-abled to use. It can be hard sometimes to maintain a grip on something so slim.”

“That’s― wow. I would never have thought of something like that, how did you come up with the idea?”

Lee shrugged. “I was visiting my grandpa in the nursing home, and he was complaining with a friend about not being able to use a pen properly and when I got home, there was this bit of mahogany just sitting there waiting for me to pick it up and carve it into something he could easily slip a pen into. I made a few more for the people in his home and then decided to adapt it for a quill too.”

Harry was giving him this look, one that Lee thought meant he was reassessing everything he thought he knew about him. Maybe with anyone else, Lee would have taken offence, but he knew that Harry’s life up until just over a year ago ― when everything had gone down at the Ministry ― had been pretty introspective and he hadn’t been able to spare a lot of thought for those outside his immediate circle. And while he and Harry had been friendly, they had never been friends. 

“How’s things going with you?” Lee asked, “Fred mentioned you’re living with your godfather finally? That must be cool.”

Harry’s face broke into a smile, and it was as he met Lee’s eyes that he realised he’d done something to get rid of his glasses, his face seemed so much more open now and his eyes fairly sparkled. 

“Yeah. It’s been pretty amazing. Living with Sirius and Remus, kinda feels like a dream, you know? That this is finally my life? Living with people that love me, finally being free of Voldemort?”

“Can’t say I can relate, never having been the subject of a madman’s fixation before,” Lee said with a grin, “but I think I can understand a little.”

Harry laughed. 

“So, what are you―”

“Hey, Harry!” called Fred, interrupting Lee. “C’mere and I’ll show you how we stack the shelves and where everything is before the shop opens.”

“Oops, better go.” Harry said, “See you ‘round.”

“Yeah, alright,” Lee said easily, watching as Harry walked toward Fred who promptly slung an arm over his shoulder as he began to lead Harry around the store. 

“Harry’s gonna help out over the holidays, just stocking shelves and stuff,” George said as he popped up beside Lee. 

“Merlin’s tits, George! Where’d you come from?”

George pointed upward to the new banner hanging above the counter, “ _ Buy 1 Pygmy Puff, get 2 free!”  _

“Shouldn’t that be the other way around?” Lee asked, “You know, buy two, get one free?”

“Nah, I accidentally spilled too much ‘Love Seed’ on our current breeding batch. I wouldn’t advise going upstairs to our flat at the moment.”

“‘Love Seed’?” Lee asked, trying to hold back the grin that threatened to break across his face, “ _ That’s _ what you called the breeding potion?”

“Hey, it’s white, thick, and it was Fred’s idea.” George grinned.

Lee snorted. “So why’s Harry here? I mean, I know what he’s doing, but―”

“You know how busy it gets over the holiday periods, we’re sure to be extra crazy leading up to Christmas. Figured an extra set of hands this year would be helpful, and we thought it would be good for Harry’s sanity to get out of the house a bit.”

“Why’s that?”

“Cause Sirius has gone crazy with the Christmas decorating. Also…” George gave him one of those wicked grins. The ones where you  _ knew _ he was scheming about something and if you weren’t careful… “It’s always good to make opportunities happen, ey?”

Lee raised one eyebrow. “What’re you talking about?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” George said with a grin that decidedly  _ did _ make Lee want to worry. “You’ll find out. Or not.”

And with that parting comment, George walked away, whistling a jaunty tune to open up the shop.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next few days passed quickly. As George predicted, they were run flat off their feet and Lee barely had time to take a bathroom break let alone figure out whatever George had alluded to that was going on with Harry. The only detail he was able to ascertain ― other than the fact the wizarding population was exceedingly blind to the point they didn’t recognise Harry without his glasses ― was that he seemed to have a never-ending supply of Weasley jumpers. Including one with a large gold ‘R’ that Lee was fairly certain was supposed to belong to Ron, given how the sleeves and length were far too long on Harry’s smaller frame. 

That day, Harry had originally come in just before they were due to open, with the sleeves rolled up and the hem tucked into his jeans a bit before Fred had run into him and shook his head.

“Harry, Harry,  _ Harrykins. _ I swear, it’s an absolute crime you won’t let Sirius take you shopping. Come with me.” 

And despite Harry’s protests, Fred marched up behind him, grabbed him by the elbows and frogmarched him into the storeroom. 

A startled yelp and a few loud protests later, Harry was pushed back onto the shop floor, sporting a new look. Fred had used a few transfigurations to alter the fit of Harry’s jeans to something more fitted. They certainly showed off the fact that Harry had quite the arse hidden away. Fred had also shrunk the jumper down to a normal fit and instead of rolling up the sleeves part way, he had pushed them up to reveal well defined forearms and didn’t that make Lee realise he had a little bit of a thing for such a rarely objectified part of the body. For some reason, Fred had lengthened Harry’s hair and fixed it into a popular messy do atop his head. 

“Fred, what in the―” Harry began.

“Now come on, let’s hear some opinions, doesn’t Harrykins look hotter like this? Instead of those baggy jeans and messy hair?”

George wolf-whistled as Harry blushed and Lee had to agree with them. The changes Fred had made  _ did  _ make the most of Harry’s features. He shook his head of a few stray thoughts when George nudged him in the ribs. 

“Looking good, Harry,” he said with a wink, and the red that had been threatening to develop on Harry’s cheeks came all the way through with an accompanying groan. 

Fred slapped Harry on the shoulder and Lee went to open the door to let in the line that had already begun to form. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Hey, it’s a rare quiet spell,” Fred said, as he came up to where both Lee and Harry were restacking some of the shelves, “Why don’t you two grab lunch?”

“Together?” Harry asked, his eyes glancing briefly in Lee’s direction, “What if it gets busy?”

“We can manage for half an hour if it does. Besides, we can call you if we really need to. Just don’t get distracted and take too long.” Fred winked. 

“Distracted?” Harry asked, “By what?”

“Beats me,” Lee replied as they headed to the back room where they kept a cooling shelf and a lounge for breaks. 

He opened the door with a flourish and Harry grinned a little as he walked through. Lee noted that while Harry had changed back to a more comfortable looking pair of jeans, he had kept the hair Fred had given him the other day. 

“You didn’t reverse Fred’s spell?” he asked.

“Huh?”

Lee nodded toward the ponytail.

“Oh, er― yeah, I did. But I actually kinda liked it, more manageable, not so messy all the time. So I bought a hair-lengthening potion.”

“It suits you,” Lee said. 

“Thanks.” 

Harry grabbed a bag from the cooling shelf and sat down on one end of the couch, propping his foot upon the small table in front of them. Lee grabbed his own sandwich and followed suit. 

“So,” Lee began conversationally after they had eaten a few bites, “What do you think is going on with Fred and George?” 

“I dunno,” Harry said, “But they’ve been weird, right? It’s not just me?” 

Lee thought about the conspiring whispers and the too-casual glances the twins had been giving him lately and shook his head. “Nope, not just you.”

Harry took another bite of his lunch and the light caught on something on his wrist. 

“What’s this?” Lee asked, reaching forward to brush against the chain that had caught his eye. 

“Oh! It’s uh, well, I’m not really sure. Luna gave it to me. She made it. Told me it would ‘help bring me to my future’.”

Lee peered closely at the bracelet. “Are those… miniaturised butterbeer corks?”

Harry laughed softly. “Yeah.”

“Why do you wear it? Does it work?”

Harry shrugged and took another bite before he answered. “I dunno if it works, but Luna made it for me because she believed it would and she wants the best for me. So…”

He trailed off and took a sip of the drink he had and Lee sat there looking at him thoughtfully. 

“What?” Harry asked, his hand coming up to wipe at his mouth self-consciously. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No, just... you’re a really good person, you know that?” Lee said. 

Harry’s mouth opened and closed a few times before he cleared his throat. “You listen to the Falmouth’s game on the weekend?” he asked.

Lee went along with the topic change and they spent the rest of the lunch break discussing Quidditch. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lee came stumbling out of the floo. Seven years in the wizarding world and he still hadn’t quite grasped that perfect moment of when to walk out. He looked around to see… no-one. The room was empty. Wasn’t there supposed to be a party here in full swing by now?

“Lee?” came a voice and he spun to see Harry curled up in an armchair with a large book and what appeared to be a bunch of photographs.

“Hey, Harry. Uh, I guess I’m early?” 

“Very,” Harry laughed, “The party won’t start for another hour and a half at least. What are you doing here so early?”

Lee sighed and made his way over to sit in the chair beside Harry. “George told me it started at five.”

Harry frowned, “No, it doesn’t start till seven. Remus can’t close his shop until six and Sirius is out last minute shopping for Christmas.”

“So, uh, should I go?” he asked nervously. “Come back later?”

“Nah, it’s fine, unless… I mean, if you want to. But you can stay, I’m not busy or anything, we’re pretty well set up, I think.”

Lee nodded and made his way over to sit in the seat beside Harry’s. “Damn, this is awkward… and I already made sure to be here a bit late. Didn’t want to be that guy that gets here on time, you know?”

“Instead, you’re just the guy that gets here fashionably early,” Harry teased, his eyes glinting in delight. 

Lee snorted. “I’ll stand by my point; that was George’s fault, not mine.” Looking closely at what Harry had in his lap. “What are you doing?”

“Oh,” Harry looked down at the book spread across his lap. “I’m uh, sticking pictures in an album. Hagrid... he gave this to me my first year of school. It’s full of pictures of my parents. Every year, Hagrid finds a few more and sends them to me to fill it up.”

“That’s― that’s pretty awesome,” Lee said, reaching for a photo of a stag and a great black dog running around an empty field. Just before he touched it, he considered that perhaps he should ask. “May I?”

When Harry nodded, he picked it up.

“What’s this of?”

“That’s actually my Dad and Sirius,” Harry said. “They’re, uh, animagi.”

“Really? Wow, that’s awesome. Fred and George and I always talked about doing that one day.”

“Me too! I mean. I’ve always thought it was something I wanted to do.”

Lee smiled at him and Harry shifted a bit in his seat. 

“Uh, my parents… Sirius, they weren’t,  _ aren’t _ , registered. I probably shouldn’t have told you.”

“Don’t worry, Harry. I’m not going to say anything. Do you remember who my best mates are? I’ve  _ lots _ of practise keeping secrets.”

“Right,” Harry said, looking down at his book again.

“But, Harry,” Lee went on, lowering his voice and leaning in a little, waiting for Harry to look back at him. “Even if I didn’t, I would keep yours.” 

“Oh.” The tentative smile that spread across Harry’s face caused an odd little flip in Lee’s stomach. “Thanks, Lee.”

And suddenly, Harry was telling Lee all sorts of things, why they had become animagi. They talked as Harry continued to stick in the pictures Hagrid had rounded up this year, and Lee couldn’t believe how incredibly  _ easy  _ it was to talk with Harry. But it wasn’t until the other guests started to arrive and Harry was pulled away from their corner to help Sirius hang a few last-minute decorations for their Christmas party that Lee felt a strange feeling stir in his chest. 

A pang of sadness as he realised his one-on-one time with Harry was up. He suddenly wished that they’d had just a few more minutes. Or another hour… just to talk.

He smiled softly though as he watched Harry interact with his family, laughing and shaking his head along with Remus at Sirius who apparently had gotten  _ even more _ decorations.

Fuck. 

His eyes grew wide and he found himself staring at Fred and George from across the room. 

He had a crush on Harry Potter. 

He blinked slowly and shook his head, the few beads attached to his dreads clicking softly as they shifted. 

He had a  _ crush _ on  _ Harry Potter _ . He met the twin’s eyes again, only for George to wink at him, and Fred to give him a thumbs up.

Their actions only made him suspect that perhaps, he’d had one for a while.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lee had a plan. Sort of. 

Now that he knew about his feelings for Harry ― he had realised they had formed sometime over his fleeting commentary career at Hogwarts and become full-blown during their interactions at Weasley Wizarding Wheezes ― he figured perhaps he should make a move and ask Harry on a date. Better to ask him and see if he was interested back than to sit around and wonder. 

But how to ask?

It wasn’t until another brief lull in the shoppers when he saw Harry looking at his carvings again that an idea began to form. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was the twenty-third of December and Lee was nervous as hell. They had just closed up shop and the twins were currently upstairs sorting out some habitats for the remaining excess of Pygmy Puffs. The shop was quiet without them and Harry was currently sweeping out the storeroom. Lee took a deep breath and made his way across the shop floor.

“Hey, Harry. You got a sec?” Lee asked, his hand brushing against his pocket nervously. 

“Hey, Lee. Sure. What’s up?”

“I uh, I got you something. For Christmas.” 

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the wrapped gift, resizing it with a quick jab of his wand. The purple paper with laughing reindeer was the only thing his sister had left when he had finally finished his gift in the middle of the night and then remembered he had to  _ wrap _ the damn thing. 

“Wow, Lee… I don’t… I didn’t get you anything.” Harry replied, embarrassment colouring his voice. 

“It’s alright,” Lee shrugged. “I wanted to give you this, I don’t need anything in return. Open it.”

Harry looked at him a little uncertain but slid his finger underneath the tape anyway. He moved to set the gift on the table and eased open the paper to reveal two wooden carvings with a soft gasp. 

“What― Lee― it’s, they’re…”

“They’re bookends,” Lee said quietly, moving to stand closer to Harry. “Of your parents, both sets of them.”

Harry’s fingers trailed over the left bookend first, tracing the curve of the stag’s antlers and the sloping back of the doe. They moved then to the complimentary side. Grazing the neck of the wolf, and smoothing over the rough fur of the great dog beside it. 

“I―”

“The fawn and pup are supposed to be you. I know Lupin calls you cub sometimes, and I overheard your godfather calling you Bambi at the party.”

Colour rose on Harry’s cheeks momentarily, and he didn’t look away from his gift when he spoke. 

“Why― Why did you do this for me? It’s beyond beautiful and I love it so much, but it must have taken you hours, _days_ , to do this. Why?”

“Cause I was kind of hoping for a date?”

Harry’s gaze whipped around to him so quickly and Lee’s eyes widened in shock.

“Shit! I didn’t mean it like that. I’m not– it’s not– I mean, I didn’t make it so you would go on a date with me. I want you to have it, no matter what. I made it because, well… I wanted to give you something, and the wood was calling to me to make this for you and―”

“So,” Harry interrupted, and Lee was grateful for the chance to stop his rambling. “You’re saying... you  _ don’t  _ want to go on a date with me?”

Lee couldn’t quite place the tone in Harry’s voice and the butterflies whizzing around his stomach only caused him to restart his rambling. 

“No! I mean, yes. I mean, I would really like to date you, to go out with you. But that’s not why I― I mean, I recently figured out that I really like you. No… not… _like_ is not the word I’m looking for. Fancy? I… yeah… I think, I _know,_ I fancy you. You’re… you’re _you_! You’re _real_ … I mean, in a way that other people aren’t. I just― I’d really like to get to know you better, to be closer to you and―”

Lee’s unusual ramble was abruptly cut off for a second time… this time by a searing kiss. He would have liked to be able to say that he absolutely did  _ not  _ squeak in surprise. As the surprise faded, he wrapped one arm around Harry’s waist and slid his hand into Harry’s hair and returned the kiss in equal measure. 

When they finally pulled back, panting slightly into one another’s mouths, Harry was gripping the front of his sweater tightly and looking at him with a hesitant wonder in his eyes.

“Wanna go to Hogsmeade on Saturday with me?” he asked. 

Lee grinned and kissed him for an answer. 

  
Feeling Harry’s grin against his mouth and the press of his tongue against his lower lip, Lee was  _ almost  _ able to drown out the two loud cheers and subsequent fireworks explosions.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed!! Let me know if you did! I love to hear from all you beautiful people. <3 
> 
> Love muchly, and Happy Holidays!  
> ArielSakura


End file.
